Silver Knight SetWhen Lord Gwyn departed to link the Fire, his knights split into two groups.
The Silver Knights remained in the forsaken capital in the service of their goddess.

When they arrived, the war was fierce and brutal. The knights, defeated by the demons, were charred black and along with Gwyn, retreated. Then, Gwyn decided to link the First Flame to prolong the Age of Fire. The then already Black Knights followed him, and when he linked the Flame, the Black Knights were burned to ashes.

Now, they wander the world as disembodied spirits, as it can be seen in the stairs descending into the Kiln of the First Flame. Others can be found around Lordran.

Black Knight SetThe knights followed Lord Gwyn when he departed to link the flame,
but they were burned to ashes in newly kindled fire,
wandering the world as disembodied spirits ever after.

Design Works Interview

Hatsuyama: I want to ask about the black knights. I remember originally they were going to wander the world, why was it that you decided to change that?

Miyazaki: We've been thinking about introducing wandering enemies since Demon's Souls, then it was skeletons and grim reapers… but for whatever reason we've yet to go through with it. The Black Knights' behaviour was changed slightly, but their role never was. Since they were burned by Gwyn's linking the flame, they wander the land. As far as design goes, there were a number of themes I wanted to incorporate. I wanted to make them really detailed models so we gathered a huge amount of reference materials - of course cloth wouldn't fit their burned image- and I wanted a design right down to the patterns carved into their armour. I really wanted that quality. I also wanted their armour to look like something a normal person couldn't wear, thick, heavy and almost hollow. I'm really happy with the final result, in fact, it really helped us promote the game.

I hadn't expected people to say it looked like a character from Demon's Souls though. That wasn't intentional at all.

Hatsuyama: The fact, they used to be Silver Knights and were transformed when Gwyn linked the flame. I was really happy that players actually noticed. I saw someone saying "this must have happened when they were burned" and I realised they'd got it!

Theories

Title of theory

Sources

Black Knight ShieldLong ago, the black knights faced the chaos demons, and were charred black,
but their shields became highly resistant to fire.

Any Black Knight Weapon[Weapon] of the black knights who wander Lordran. Used to face chaos demons.
The large motion that puts the weight of the body into the attack reflects the great size of their adversaries long ago.

Black Knight SetThe knights followed Lord Gwyn when he departed to link the flame,
but they were burned to ashes in newly kindled fire,
wandering the world as disembodied spirits ever after.

Silver Knight SetWhen Lord Gwyn departed to link the Fire, his knights split into two groups.
The Silver Knights remained in the forsaken capital in the service of their goddess.